The brand new 2025 Srixon ZXi drivers reside proof that three seemingly conflicting conclusions can all be true.
First, they may be the most effective drivers Srixon has launched prior to now decade, at the very least. There’s an intriguing new face materials and face design, three fashions with distinct variations and a glance that rivals something we’ve seen to date this 12 months.
Second, regardless of what we simply informed you, it’s unlikely the brand new Srixon ZXi drivers will shake up this 12 months’s driver market. We don’t see TaylorMade, Callaway, PING, Titleist or COBRA worrying a lot about ZXi.
Third, Srixon doesn’t a lot care about what you simply learn. Like most metalwood challenger manufacturers, Srixon is combating for its share of the ten p.c of the market the Massive 5 don’t already personal. Success is measured in ft, not miles.
That stated, we’re going to give attention to that first conclusion at the moment. Srixon has at all times had “nice” drivers however that is the primary time in my reminiscence that Srixon is bringing a compelling driver story to the desk.
Ought to they be in your 2025 driver demo record?
Pace via supplies
Srixon, by nature, will not be essentially the most hyperbolic firm. It’s not into huge advertising splashes and received’t (with possibly one exception) smack you within the face with phrases like “revolutionary” or “game-changing.” Whereas it makes for a extra accountable group, Srixon drivers don’t generate the identical buzz as the same old suspects.
That’s why hanging your hat on a newly developed face materials and a brand new variable-thickness face design is quintessentially Srixon.
The brand new materials known as Ti72S titanium, developed by Srixon engineers in Japan and California.
“The limits have been pushed as to what we can squeeze out of titanium,” Srixon Engineering Director Dustin Brekke tells MyGolfSpy, “however we are able to enhance its yield stress and what it might probably face up to. We will get positive factors in mass discount and enhance our variable-face thickness.”
The face is among the heaviest elements of a driver clubhead. Any time you can also make it lighter and enhance power, that’s a possibility for higher. Ti72S is lighter and stronger than Srixon’s earlier Ti51AF. Lighter and stronger enables you to make the face thinner and a thinner face is a ball pace multiplier.
Pace via “i-Flex” and Rebound Body
Each OEM has ball speed-enhancing expertise, with face flex and variable-face thickness taking part in main roles. The aim is twofold: maximize ball pace on middle strikes, and decrease ball pace loss on off-center strikes. Some could also be more practical, however all serve the identical objective: to get the ball transferring like a bat out of hell at impression.
After that, the ball is by itself. The membership has performed its job.
“Twenty years ago, we had a uniform face thickness stamped out of a sheet of metal,” says Brekke. “It gave you pretty good ball speed but it was inefficient. You had a lot of mass that wasn’t optimized for performance.”
Mock synthetic intelligence if you’ll however AI can create an optimized variable-face thickness sample which will take 100 engineers 100 years to iterate. The pc isn’t flying blind, nevertheless. It makes use of participant impression data, Arccos information and different human enter. With all that information, Srixon’s supercomputer created “i-Flex.”
“The new Ti72S titanium is a dial for us,” says Brekke. “It’s our thinnest face so we can improve center impact.”
For those who have a look at it from the within, the i-Flex face sample resembles both a stylized capital “I” or, for those who choose, the Inexperienced Lantern’s inexperienced lantern image. (Don’t inform me I’m the one one who sees it.) Srixon backs i-Flex with its fourth era of Rebound Body to create ball pace.
Rebound Body primarily creates two trampolines on the entrance of the membership. The primary trampoline options the skinny i-Flex face backed by a inflexible body. That body is then backed by a versatile zone which is then backed by one other inflexible zone. Consider it as a double boing.
“i-Flex brings focus to the face itself,” says Brekke. “Rebound Frame is about maximizing the overall deflection profile.”
Three new Srixon ZXi drivers: Spin is the factor
For an trade that resists standardization (shaft flex, anybody?), golf appears to have settled on a primary driver nomenclature. Srixon’s 2023 driver lineup featured the better-player-focused ZX7, the extra forgiving ZX5 and, for the primary time, a low-spin mannequin within the ZX5 LS.
It’s 2025 now and the trade has adopted the usual, MAX and LS terminology. Srixon is becoming a member of the social gathering with its new ZXi, ZXi MAX and ZXi LS drives. For those who’re attempting to match them up, the ZXi replaces the ZX7, the ZXi MAX replaces the ZX5 and the LS replaces the LS.
The usual Srixon ZXi ought to match the widest swath of golfers (Shane Lowery gamed it in final week’s TGL debut) and presents a stability between ball pace, MOI, forgiveness and low spin. The ZXi MAX is, because the title suggests, all about forgiveness. It has the very best MOI of any Srixon driver so far. The ZXi LS is the follow-up to the ZX5 LS, Srixon’s shock performer for MGS in 2023. It has a low-spin profile and advantages golfers with aggressive swings, even when their swing pace isn’t what you’d name excessive.
Srixon’s becoming story, nevertheless, is what makes the lineup fascinating.
“These are all designed for fast ball speed and max distance,” says Brekke. “But from an impact performance standpoint, spin is the driving force. Do you need low spin? Would it help you to have more spin, provided you can deal with the tradeoffs that might come with that?”
For many golfers, you’d begin with the ZXi because it will provide you with some left-to-right variation. For those who want extra spin and forgiveness, you shift to the MAX. For those who want much less spin and may tolerate the loss in forgiveness, you may have a look at the LS.
A brand new adjustable hosel (FINALLY!)
That Woodstock 1969-level roar of approval you’re listening to is me celebrating a brand new adjustable hosel within the Srixon ZXi drivers.
Hallelujah!
Not that the outdated Srixon adapter was junk. It wasn’t. The issue was it had extra positions than the Kama Sutra and also you wanted a complicated diploma to make use of it.
“Hosel adjustability was engineering-driven for the longest time,” admits Brekke. “It was like, ‘Oooh, look at everything it can do.’ It was just so overwhelming.”
The brand new hosel has a bigger vary than the outdated one however you received’t want a decoder ring to determine it out. It’s loft-based however as you modify the loft up or down (1.5 levels in ½-degree increments) you additionally modify the lie angle down from commonplace and the face angle to be extra open or extra closed.
Altogether, the brand new hosel presents 12 totally different settings. When mixed with the swappable sole weights, an excellent fitter can simply flip three totally different Srixon ZXi drivers into dozens of prospects.
“Unless a driver says ‘Draw’ on it, everyone is trying to go straight,” Brekke says. “We have a little left tendency with the MAX but there are things you can do with face angle and other stuff. We’re trying to provide fitting solutions and clarity in performance expectations.”
The sound of distance?
I’ve tried all three of the brand new Srixon ZXi drivers and whereas I wouldn’t describe their sound as off-putting, it’s no classic 1985 Kathleen Turner whispering in your ear, both.
“It’s not a loud driver. There’s nothing crazy about it,” says Brekke. “But I do think it has more of a signature sound. It’s not as high frequency as previous Srixon drivers, but sound is another design tradeoff. Depending on how sole, heel and toe weights are arranged, you can get sole vibrations that might be outside of where you’d want them to be.”
That’s a long-winded method of claiming we designed the motive force to do sure issues and that is the sound we bought. Srixon, like PING, eschews carbon fiber in favor of all-titanium building. Carbon fiber crowns do change the sound dynamic slightly bit, so a level of high-toned clinkyness is anticipated.
Perhaps the easiest way to explain it’s that it seems like a PING driver.
“As an engineer working on sound, there are a lot of wrong answers but very few right answers,” Brekke explains. “There are areas you may’t reside in. However when you’re in the suitable area, it turns into a tradeoff. Transferring a few grams within the inner ribs or altering face curvature influences the sound.
“There will be things you will and won’t want to do.”
Then once more, if the match works for you and also you just like the efficiency, it’s wonderful how rapidly the sound received’t trouble you. I’ve hit worse-sounding drivers over time, that’s for certain.
Apart from, when you hit a number of bombs, any driver will sound like a Paul McCartney lullaby.
Srixon ZXi drivers: Value, specs and availability
The usual Srixon ZXi driver shall be accessible in nine- and 10.5-degree lofts for righties and lefties. It comes commonplace with swappable heel and toe sole weights. With the 10-gram weight within the heel and four-gram within the sole, the ZXi is extra draw-biased. Swapping them makes it extra fade-biased.
The Fujikura Ventus TR Blue (X-, S-, R-flexes) is inventory as is the Golf Pleasure Tour Velvet 360 grip.
The ZXi MAX is available in nine-, 10.5- and 12-degree heads (9 is RH solely) with a 14-gram sole weight within the again for a low and deep middle of gravity. The lighter-weight Venture X Denali Pink 50 is the inventory shaft, in S-, R- and A-flexes. The Tour Velvet 360 is the inventory grip.
A 12-degree ZXi MAX girls’s mannequin is out there in left- and right-handed fashions (lefties must customized order). The Aldila Ascent PL 40 shaft and Lamkin ST Delicate grip are inventory.
The Srixon ZXi LS is available in three lofts (eight, 9, 10.5 levels) with the Venture X HZRDUS Black in X-, S- and R-flexes and Tour Velvet 360 grip inventory. Solely the nine-degree mannequin is out there for lefties.
The brand new Srixon ZXi drivers will retail for $549.99. They hit the shops Jan. 24.
For extra data, go to the Srixon web site.
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